Browsing Tag

Los Angeles

Travel

Hipster Travel: Sunken City, the Neighborhood That Fell Into the Ocean

IMG_0470

Last weekend, I jumped in my car and drove to LA, like a goddamn fool.

I’ve been a huge pussy about flying and after crying like a little bitch about whether or not I should buy a last minute flight or make the 42-hour roundtrip car ride to LA, I decided to toughen up, throw some clothing, snacks and water in the car and head West.

I forgot how invigorating, then mind-numbing and then ass-hurting the drive to Los Angeles is. There is nothing quite like driving through the American Southwest. It is full of wondrous nature, breathtaking landscapes, terrifying truck drivers and even more terrifying rest stops with fluorescent lighting that makes you feel like the bimbo blonde wandering aimlessly in an 80s horror film. If you can survive the sleep-deprived truckers, the rest areas of night terrors and the monotony of the drive, then you feel like an American bad-ass after completing the trip.

The reason why I drove to LA is because my Dad lives out there (and I used to live there). (more…)

June 3, 2014 by
Hipstercrite Life, Pop Culture

A Gray, Rainy Day in LA (Pictures)

We snuck out to LA for a few days this past weekend to finish up sound on our movie and to visit with friends and family.

It was a whirlwind trip that almost included a visit to the Conan O’Brien set to see Bryan Cranston!!!!, but alas, I forgot how AWE-INSPIRINGLY SHITTY LA traffic is and couldn’t make it on time. Woof! I do not miss being a slave to my car and I do not miss paying so much for gas (gas is $2.99 in Austin, suckers!)

The weather was not typical LA weather. It was cold and gray and barely surpassed 60 degrees most days.

It was beautiful.

Below are a few pictures from our visit.

It might not be the right city for me, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop romanticizing about it.

Please excuse the weird face I’m making in the last photo- I downed a half of a bottle of red wine before my flight…

Oh, and the second to last photo is of Geoff injecting cream cheese into a corn dog.

Yes, they taste as amazing as they sound.

December 19, 2012 by
Hipstercrite Life, Travel, Writing

How to Travel With Your Mother Without Killing Each Other

Just a dead shark on a forklift

MY MOM IS IN TOWN!

That means a lot of quality mom and daughter bonding time, her telling me I should brush my hair and her telling my boyfriend stories about how I don’t share food.

I love my Mom more than anything. I am her only daughter and she solely raised me, so needless to say we’re very much alike. Due to this fact and the fact that we both come from a long lineage of guilt-inducing Jews, we bicker a lot. I went to therapy to nip the guilt tripping trait in the bud, so when my mother, and especially my grandmother, try to pull it on me, I turn into a raving She-Hulk. When you’re little, you don’t know any better; feeling guilty for absolutely nothing was pounded into my soft skull at a very young age. When you’re older, you realize that normal people don’t say things like, “You think I’m stupid!” when you don’t agree with something they say or, “You must not like spending Christmas-” -we’re religiously inadequate Jews- “-with the family anymore!” (more…)

September 27, 2012 by
Austin

In-N-Out Burger is Headed to Austin Area. Who Cares?

photo by Terrapin Trail

When I lived in LA, one of the anomalies I couldn’t wrap my brain around are the ridiculous lines for In-N-Out Burger. Even in a jaded city like Los Angeles, the popularity of the In-N-Out has never waned.

Though I don’t particularly like or dislike In-N-Out Burger, I can tell you I had my certain times of ABSOLUTE HATE when as a personal assistant, I had to wait in the lunch line for an hour just to get a friggin’ cheeseburger and fries for my boss. Nothing feels more awesome than trying to maneuver with 75 other cars in a tiny-ass parking lot off of Sunset Boulevard.

But in case this something you enjoy, Austinites will now have the luxury to FREAK THE F out over In-N-Out Burger in Round Rock.

Eater announced today that reports of In-N-Out hiring a local planning firm to figure out zoning issues has surfaced. Though In-N-Out has not confirmed building a Central Texas location, this looks like good news for people who love it Animal-style in bed.

I (more…)

June 28, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

I Miss LA

Visiting LA was amazing and confusing. I never imagined that I would miss LA, but I do. I think?

This week I visited Los Angeles. It was my first extended trip since I walked away from the city of wandering angels.

I met up with old friends and revisited familiar locations that I abruptly left almost four years ago. Jumping into the past is both energizing and intimidating. Will I feel disconnected from my old friends? Will I want to stay in the past? Will this trip trigger an existential crisis that will leave me curled up in a ball screaming, “Who am I?!?”

The longer I’ve lived away from Los Angeles the more I’ve romanticized it. I conveniently forgot the aimless journey I was taking there, long nights crying myself to sleep or staring at the ocean sky hoping life would finally happen.

I moved to Los Angeles when I was 20 after being offered an assistant position at an actor’s production company. It took me five years to realize that I didn’t want to put someone before me (more…)

May 14, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

Sometimes I Miss Being a Sad, Drunken Twenty-Something

Sometimes I think my writing would be much more interesting if I were still a wandering soul.

I used to decry that as a confused early twenty-something my stresses prevented me from thinking creatively. Between the ages of 20 and 25 that I lived in Los Angeles, I did little to release my artistic passions. I was drowning in my self-made cocktail of existentialism and narcissism. Sick of hearing myself talk about my petty, but nonetheless troubling issues caused me to move to another city to “find myself”.

Which I did.

Now I’m boring.

I work from home, forget to change out of my pajamas and garden poorly.

I wouldn’t say that “I’ve figured it all out” though. Who ever does? In many ways, we’re ambling spirtis our entire lives; always searching, always learning and always changing.

However, I’m a far cry from the girl I was five years ago.

The girl at 23 didn’t know what she wanted in a career or in love. She thought she always knew herself, but for the first time (more…)

May 7, 2012 by
Hipstercrite Life

A Story About Drinking

I rarely drink anymore.

Because of that, this post is spawned from the fact that I spent most of yesterday morning barfing up the Janis Joplin– hemp seed veggie patty, Tillamook cheese and avocado- at Austin’s beloved burger spot, Hopdoddy. I had three drinks of tequila and my body was all like, “WTF is this stingy crap going through my veins?” and decided to violently discard whatever it could find resting in my body which was mostly seeds and nuts. Lemme tell you, seeds and nuts feeling like freakin’ barbed wire travelling up your windpipe at the speed of sound. Between the liquor and the texture of the nuts, it feels like someone taking a Brillo Pad and going, “Scrape, scrape, scrape! Wee, wee, wee!”

When you get out of the habit of drinking, things like instant naptime or ralphing are common.

I never was a big drinker to begin with.

Considering I come from a family of non-drinkers that have the ability to drink two sips of wine and then laugh for five minutes while they (more…)

February 8, 2012 by
Film, Hipstercrite Life

I Used to be a Hollywood Assistant

Over at CultureMap, I wrote a story about my days in LA. Some of you who have hung in there with me might already know this story. Occasionally I get nostalgic and cry like a little bitch about ol’ Hollywood. Either way, I’m happy I left it…

True Hollywood Story: The Life and Death of a Tinsletown Assistant

12.10.11 | 01:00 pm

I used to work in Hollywood — as a personal assistant.

Sometimes it seems like a dream, my time there. A forgotten dream only triggered by a minor chord or someone else’s love letter to Los Angeles. By songs or films that I relate to but that are not my story. Sometimes I drift off in a cloud of romanticized musings of things I did not experience.

It’s much easier to recall your time in Hollywood like one would a movie, giving your story a narrative when in reality, while you were experiencing it, there was no voice guiding the way.

I meet a lot of young people in Austin who want to move to or are about to move to LA. My initial reaction (more…)

December 10, 2011 by
Austin, Hipstercrite Life, Writing

Beyond 6th Interview

On Sunday I was interviewed by the wonderful gang over at Beyond 6th.

Beyond 6th is a weekly love letter podcast to Austin. Hosts @EddieCantu @BriDraffen @JustinTArthur and @WadeofHonor interview local artists and talk about what is going on in this marvelous city. I had a blast meeting with them and I highly recommend subscribing to their podcast.

I met Beyond 6th in a swanky apartment above 6th Street. Did I think I would have the same fate as Paul Allen? Maybe. But that didn’t stop me from forgoing the beer they offered me before the interview and digging into the sweet, sweet sweet tea vodka. As you will notice, at some point in the interview I have difficultly finishing thoughts and sentences.

Listening to yourself is never a fun experience, but I was happy to notice that I didn’t sound like Kermit the Frog over the podcast. Not that Kermit the Frog sounds shitty, I mean, who the f doesn’t love Kermit the Frog? But Kermit is not sexy, you know? I’ve been striving for the (more…)

October 20, 2011 by
20-Something, Film, Hipstercrite Life

Under Your Spell

11:26PM 10/19/11

Watching Drive and writing that post today really got to me. The LA in Drive is the LA in so many movies and was the LA in my head when I lived there, though it’s not the LA that actually exists. I’ve written about this way too many times before, so I will not rehash it too much. Or maybe I will.

There are multiple LAs that exist in film- the glamorous 1920’s LA, the dangerous noir 40’s/50’s LA, the sunny carefree 1960’s LA, the porn/drug-riddled 70’s LA and the beautifully nihilistic 80’s LA. After that, the LA that exists now is the one we all know, but we want the other LAs, you know? The Day-Of-The-Locust-Who-Framed-Roger-Rabbit-Chinatown-LA-Confidential-Boogie Nights-Less-Than-Zero all rolled into one LA.

I just can’t stop thinking about her tonight. I can’t stop thinking about all the illusions and the dreams that weren’t real. The holding my breath, waiting for something to happen. The anticipation that anything– good or bad- would reveal itself to me. (more…)

October 20, 2011 by